In plastic film packaging systems, particularly blister-type plastic film packaging systems, the plastic film package generally is heat-sealed by the use of radio frequency (RF) heating techniques. For example, a transparent polyvinyl chloride plastic film may be heat or vacuum-molded and formed into a blister form of sufficient size and form to receive one or more articles to be packaged within the blister package. The outer edges of the blister so formed are usually then heat-sealed, such as by employing a radio frequency, to join and heat seal the surfaces of the blister to the edges of an underlining or adjacent PVC plastic sheet material, which sheet material may be either used alone to form a totally visible package, or may be combined with a cardboard-type sheet material to form a complete blister-type package for the articles.
It is desirable to provide a new and improved blister packaging system, and a method for efficiently, rapidly, and effectively sealing plastic film in such systems, which system and method avoids the difficulties associated with radio frequency heating and sealing, and yet which has significant advantages over prior art heat sealing techniques in the blister film packaging field.